Rain May Be A Pain, But It Isn`t Hugo

September 20, 1989|By SETH BORENSTEIN, Staff Writer

Don`t blame Hurricane Hugo for the thunderstorms that have rocked South Florida for the past three days.

``It`s not related to Hugo,`` said meteorologist Jesse Moore of the National Weather Service in Miami. ``We get flooded with phone calls. People think it`s Hugo, even though Hugo is 1,000 miles away.``

This is normal summertime weather, Moore said on Tuesday.

A low-pressure system caused storms that dumped 2.46 inches of rain on Fort Lauderdale`s beach in the past three days, Moore said. The same storm only trickled .32 of an inch of rain on Hollywood, but soaked Miami with 2.38 inches of rain.

During the storms, the wind has gusted up to 40 mph, ``but that`s nothing terribly unusual about thunderstorms in South Florida,`` Moore said.

It may seem bad now, but that`s nothing if Hugo hits, Moore said. A hurricane like Hugo could produce consistent winds of 40 to 60 mph with gusts up to 100 mph, he said.

``These thunderstorms may last an hour or so,`` Moore said. ``But they definitely don`t last for five, six, seven hours. It`s nothing like a hurricane.``

Despite the more than two inches of rainfall during the past three days, ``a water shortage still exists,`` said Ann Overton, a spokeswoman for the South Florida Water Management District. The rain has not been in the right place, the dangerously low Lake Okeechobee, she said.

The recent weather has set record high and low temperature marks, Moore said.

Hollywood set a record high of 92 on Sunday. Miami set record highs on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Miami set both a record high of 95 and a record low of 72 on Monday, Moore said.

``Thunderstorms do it all the time,`` Moore said.

Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood reached a high of 91 on Tuesday, neither of them records, he said.